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P/CLOUDY Temp: 67 °F Wind: NW at 6 mph Monday, August 19, 2002 SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Cyberchef E The People Golf Job Network Headbone Zone Wellness Connection Movie Times Newspaper in Education Oregon CarZone Outdoor Journal Personals Prime Times Real Estate Tempo A & E TV Times W3 Magazine CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find Everything E SOUTHERN OREGON Destinations Automotive Communities Employment Entertainment Publications Real Estate Recreation Shopping Calendar ABOUT US FAQ What's New Advertise Home Delivery Classified Ad Contact Us Media Kit Jobs @ Mail Tribune Email Story to a Friend July 26, 2002 Calle Vista Drive, the first street into 1,000-acre development in Medford's Southeast Plan, will soon be followed by the 218 homes that will make up the Summerfield at Southeast Park subdivision. Mail Tribune / Jim Craven The Southeast neighborhood being developed in Medford has builders and officials beaming By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune It’s going to cost a little more to live in a Southeast Plan home, but it will be a neighborhood like Medford has never seen, planners and developers say. Homes with front porches to encourage neighbors to get to know each other, glass lanterns along sidewalks for walkers and a manmade creek running through the commercial zone will mark the development near Barnett and North Phoenix roads. "This is something we hope will be a showplace for the rest of Oregon," said City Councilman Jim Key, a member of the Southeast Plan Implementation Advisory Committee. The committee recently presented to the City Council 31 "consensus points" to fine tune the largest development in Medford’s history. The document took more than a year to draft during sometimes-heated meetings of the advisory committee made up of Mike Mahar, Lou Mahar, Randy Jones, Craig Stone and Jim Bennett, representing developers, and Key, Councilman Bill Moore and planning commissioners Carl Bartlett and Boyd Gibson, representing the city. The document outlines everything from who will pay for the special lighting to who will maintain the parks, greenways and paths planned throughout the 1,000-acre site. The pedestrian-scale lights will add about $1,000 to the price of each house, said committee member Jones, co-owner of Mahar Homes. Southeast Plan residents also will pay a utility fee, possibly about $4 a month, for electricity and maintenanceof the lights. The 31 consensus points call for city maintenance of parks and pathways and limits homeowners associations to paying for parks or paths that are closed to the public. "If we’re having hiking trails, bike and pedestrian paths, greenways and people having access to the waterways, they need to be publicly owned," Jones said. "How could we require a private entity to maintain public paths and parks?" There are five developers and 100 property owners total in the area, which is predicted to have 5,000 homes and apartments and 10,000 residents within the next few decades. The plan also calls for a 46-acre commercial complex with row houses, a school, government office, church and retirement home. Developers and city staff have been working for 13 years on a master plan for the area. "People have been waiting quite awhile," Jones said. "Some people couldn’t wait any longer and they had to go to Eagle Point or Central Point." Within the nextfew weeks, however, homes will go up in the Southeast Plan’s first subdivision — Summerfield at Southeast Park, 218 homes near Cherry Lane and North Phoenix Road. The city has approved another subdivision as well — Lou Mahar and the DeCarlow family will build Stonegate Estates, 203 homes and 96 apartments, along North Phoenix Road near Coal Mine Road. Meanwhile, planner Scot Siegel from Otak Inc. in Lake Oswego will write new city codes to accommodate the plan. Committee members will review his draft, said Suzanne Myers, city planner, and the Planning Commission and City Council will hold public hearings in December or January. In the fall, the City Council will hear from Lake Oswego consultant Bob Foster, hired to create a neighborhood circulation plan, Myers said. The City Council voted last year to spend $20,000 for the plan. "He’s going to propose how the streets might be laid out, more specifically," Myers said. "Right now, we know generally where the streets will be. This will help when a property owner comes in with a project to see how the streets might fit in. It will make it easier for individual property owners to design something that fits with everybody else’s." Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Printer Friendly Version Email Story to a Friend Subscribe Archive: Click to Search Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright 1997-2002 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy web master feedback A D V E R T I S E R S